Category: Designing

Do you keep a sketch book? I have been keeping one for years. When I finish one I put it on a shelf with the other finished ones and start a new one. I take it with me almost all the time. Even if we are going around town I have it with me. You never know when an idea will pop in your head and you need to document it.

Not too long ago I shared with you that my art class was making lanterns out of wide mouth quart canning jars. (See post here Living with Art – Painting on Glass) Today I would like to share a pattern with you so that you can make your own lanterns and more.

For our third week of living with art we painted paper mache. Our first project was a pencil box for them to keep their pencils and other small supplies in. I let them paint whatever they would like using DecoArt Americana acrylics.

Our class is 2 hours and they had a half an hour left so I gave them a second project – a small paper Mache jewelry box.

If you have been following along, you know that I have been teaching some kid classes this summer where we are painting on different surfaces and using different mediums. (find out more here). The first week we created an art journal with watercolors that they will be able to work on all summer. (find out more here).

It is always fun to have a creative playdate with friends. Not too long ago I got together with my girlfriends Glenda and Deb. We had no plan…which I always love. We started playing with flowers which led us to talking about ideas for backgrounds. Soon we had the stencils out. Just using a few stencils in our projects brought them from pretty to gorgeous in a very short time.

For those of you who are tired of seeing more glitter houses, forgive me….but I have been getting a number of requests for some spring houses and want to try to keep everyone happy… so here are three new designs for spring:

Do you ever find that you have an idea in your head and when you start working on it you are just so disappointed you feel like giving up….throwing it in the trash, never to try to do something similar again. This can also happen when you are trying to paint someone else’s design.

Normally I paint from a pattern or sketch from photo references, but sometimes it is fun to set up a still life and paint from it….so why not paint donuts.

The best part about painting donuts is having to buy a “collection” of fresh donuts to sketch and then eat them. 😀 Since my husband was more than willing to help and anxious to get started, I took pictures. I stacked them and also took pictures singularly from the top, side and at an angle. After photographing many donuts I decided on these three.

Our family was celebrating my nieces 50th birthday on New Year’s day. I wanted to do something special for her so I decided to make a mixed media Birthday canvas. I had a general idea of what I wanted to do and was able to find the needed supplies at my local crafts store. I started with a 5x7x2 wooden canvas (you could use a regular canvas), I wanted to put her age on the canvas, her initial, a crown, and possibly feet on the project so she could sit it on a table.

One day I was on Facebook and someone posted a picture of a gift that her mother had painted for her birthday. The tray was one of my designs so I was excited when I saw it. I always love when people paint my designs, but I really love when they take my design and personalize it. Here is the picture that I saw on Facebook.

This weekend I was at a painting seminar at my local chapter with Amy Mogish. We had time to chat as we were prepping our pieces and one of the girls said that she just realized recently that she could make designs her own by changing things instead of making it exactly the way the teacher did hers.

When I thought about it I realize this is the beginning of designing. First we use a different surface, then a different color on a few elements. Next we are combining a few patterns to create a project…..and then we try our hand at making our own designs.

I had made some changes to Amy’s original design “Simple Goodness” which was placed on a tin cake stand. I wanted to place mine on a canvas because I was going to put it beside an antique cake stand that was my mothers.